We give our
F-150s a thorough beating beyond anything customers will put them
through. Before a customer puts his new F-150 to work, we’ve been
hard at work putting more than 5 million miles of durability, development
and evaluation testing on prototypes to ensure they have earned
the Ford Tough label."– Gurminder Bedi, Ford Vice President, Ford Truck
Vehicle Center

Under a scorching
sun at 120 degrees Fahrenheit with no shade and no wind, Ford engineers
drive trucks for hours, days and weeks on end. They drive them over
dusty gravel roads, hot concrete curves, pools of mud and rocky
hillsides, over and over again.

For more than
20 years, most Ford F-150 durability testing has been carried out
at Ford’s Arizona Proving Ground (APG) in Yucca, Ariz. The proving
ground and the Yucca area offer a unique combination of climate
and topography – from 500 to 3,900 feet above sea level – to test
trucks beyond normal and extreme limits. The average summer temperature
at APG is a dusty and dry 103 degrees Fahrenheit with peak temperatures
exceeding 120 degrees.

Trucks, their
powertrains, body and frame structures, cooling systems, front-
and rear-end systems, electrical systems and anti-corrosion elements
are tested on 50-miles of special road surfaces from paved highways
to square-edged pothole riddled gravel roads. Test trucks, both
4x4 and 4x2 configurations, are verified over tens of thousands
of miles of durability testing. Each F-150 durability prototype
was put through 71,000 miles of powertrain, structure and trailer
towing testing.

Routes included
the five-mile high-speed track, rough roads designed to cause accelerated
structural damage and several steep grades to validate the powertrain.

In addition,
complementary lab and dynamometer testing was conducted on subsystems
and components.

Arizona Proving
Ground Tests

The Arizona
Proving Ground’s 50 miles of specialty roads are the training camp
of the Ford truck. It is here that F-150s are put through such drills
as the Sandwash, Twist Ditch, Translator Hill, Power Hop Hill and
Mudbath.

The Sandwash
looks like a giant sandbox. Only a four-wheel-drive vehicle can
get through its two-foot deep bed of loose desert sand. Designed
to tax the drive system, it measures the toughness and durability
of the front-drive axle, the transfer case and the rear-drive axle.
Test trucks are exposed to 750-1,000 miles in the Sandwash.

The Twist Ditch
tests the 4x4 frame and body durability on an F-150 driven diagonally
through a large ditch. When a truck is in the ditch, its weight
is largely supported on diagonally opposing wheels, inducing maximum
torsional loading of the body and frame structure. Test trucks make
more than 3,000 passes through the Twist Ditch.

Translator
Hill – a 3,900-foot peak in the Hulalapai Mountains –provides a
stringent test to the 4x4 system. The only way to scale its boulder-strewn
surface is in four-wheel-drive – all the way up and all the way
down. Translator Hill, which gets its name from the communications
equipment at the top, tests a truck’s gradability, braking capability
and powertrain toughness on a steep, unpaved incline. Test trucks
prove themselves over 100 miles on Translator Hill.

Power Hop
Hill is a man-made hill that includes a harsh washboard driving
surface that tests the impact resistance and strength of the suspension
and driveline components. Two-wheel-drive test trucks complete more
than 250 cycles of Power Hop Hill. The Mudbath is a giant concrete-lined
tub filled with a sloppy mixture of mud and clay. The mud works
its way into any nook and cranny and clings to every part it touches.
The Mudbath tests retention of wiring and mudpacking resistance
of rotating components. Test trucks are put through more than 200
Mudbath cycles.

Towing Tests

Three engines
are available in the 2000 and 2001 F-150 lineup.

Components
such as the heavy-duty cranks, bearings and camshafts were developed
to meet the rigorous demands placed on pickup trucks. The heads
and intake manifold are specially configured to give F-150 a wider,
flatter torque curve that is needed for towing and general pickup
use.

Two Triton™
V-8 engines, designed with a fail safe cooling system, are optional
on regular cab and SuperCab model F-150s. The 4.6-liter _Triton™
V-8 is standard on the 2001 F-150 SuperCrew and 2000 F-150 Lariat
models.

In the event
of a loss of coolant, fail safe cooling allows the truck to continue
to operate for a short distance (depending on load, road conditions
and outside temperature).

Due to extreme
temperatures experienced in trailer towing conditions, an auxiliary
engine oil cooler and transmission cooler is recommended. The auxiliary
engine oil and transmission coolers are included in optional Class
III trailer towing packages.

Nonetheless,
Ford engineers test F-150s over a trailer towing route with and
without auxiliary coolers to ensure the proper engine and transmission
operating temperatures can be maintained under the extreme, abusive
situations owners sometimes demand of their trucks.

To ensure long-term
durability, powertrains are exposed to more than 10,000 miles at
maximum gross cargo weight in starting and stopping and high-speed
track towing tests.

Rust Resistance

The F-150 lineup
has undergone an extensive corrosion resistance program for the
chassis and the body. Virtually all body panels feature double-sided
galvanized steel – the roof uses one-sided galvanized. A full phosphate
dip plus High-Edge E-Coat systems and durable paint help to protect
most of the body and chassis components.

Door inner
cavities receive a rust-preventative wax and hem flanges are sealed.
The frame is given a hot-melt wax finish. The front edge of the
hood and fenders receive an anti-chip primer before painting. Clearcoat
paint and a PVC coating are sprayed on the lower bodyside and rear
wheelhouses for extra chip and corrosion protection from stone pecking.

The exhaust
system is stainless steel.

Prototypes
complete a 17-week corrosion test which includes APG’s Saltbath,
Humidity Chamber, Mudbath and Drying Chamber. Sixty cycles of this
testing are the equivalent of six years of abuse in Canada’s rugged
Maritime Provinces. Today’s F-150 prototypes were subjected to 100
cycles of the testing.

All told, today’s
F-150 has been exposed to more than 5-million miles of cumulative
testing.